Wednesday, July 04, 2007

What could be more appropriate today than showing some support for the American troops out in Iraq risking their lives? And how could we support them better than by reading their own words about their own experiences? So go ahead, here's your link.

2 comments:

"And how could we support them better than by reading their own words about their own experiences"

Getting them out of there, that's how.

It's hard to imagine the horrors they're facing on a constant basis, and for no good reason at all. 3600 Americans dead, 10000-20000 Americans severely wounded, many of them losing limbs or eyes or having burns or brain damage, hundreds of British and other allied troops dead, and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis dead, while millions of Iraqis have been forced from their homes and now many of them are living in desperate conditions as refugees in neighboring countries. US forces are basically caught in the middle of a civil war, and the longer we stay the worse things are likely to get - if the US pulled out there might be at least some chance of the major factions to come to some sort of compromise instead of continuing their battle. The surge isn't succeeding at all - at best it is pacifying some areas while diverting the insurgency into others. In many cases successful short-term actions by US troops against the insurgency result in collateral damage and civilian deaths - which result in increased support for the insurgency in the long run. Unfortunately, Bush won't pull the troops out as long as he is still in office, and the Democrats won't force him to. And many of the 2008 presidential candidates want to maintain a residual force or permanent bases. Only Bill Richardson is calling for an immediate withdrawal with no residual forces or permanent bases, for involving Syria and Iran in a solution rather than demonizing them, and for turning Iraq over to an international peacekeeping force.